The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory conference on Genome Informatics will focus on the provision and utilization of large scale genomic data and annotations. Genomic resources provide the fundamental descriptions of an increasing array of organisms at the molecular level. This meeting forms part of a series that alternates annually between Cold Spring Harbor, USA and Hinxton, UK, The goal of the series is to explore both the latest provision of these resources, and perhaps most importantly, their use as engines of biological discovery. This ranges from the storage of data and their associated data models, to the design of effective algorithms to uncover non-obvious aspects of these datasets, to ontologies to concisely describe biological information, and software systems to support curation, visualization, and exploration. The conference also covers the use of genomics in combination with various imaging applications and the latest attempts to understand microbial pathogenesis based on genomics. The conference has expanded its remit over the last few years, to ensure it remains current with the latest applications of informatics, all the while ensuring a strong focus on biological informatics. The conference brings together some of the leading scientists in this growing field, and we strongly encourage researchers from other large scale information handling disciplines to attend.